DOI: 10.308161ICONN412017166 Conceptual sphere of modern cinema (a study of headline complexes of 21st - century European and Asian movies) Elena Gudeleva, Ekaterina Sudarkina Vladimir State University, Russia Abstract: This article aims to reveal the conceptual sphere of modern cinema dis- course in Europe and Asia by analyzing movie headline complexes. More than two thousand original movie titles and slogans of 21st-century films presented at the largest festivals are studied. The main concepts man( , opposition, love, house and nature) are pointed out and explained. In addition to the detailed theoretical commentary, the paper shows how the cinema headline complex con- centrates intertextual and non-textual associations, and carries information about authors’ intentions and tastes of moviegoers who are the target audience for the interpreter. Keywords: headline complex, concept, cinema discourse, translation, linguocul- tural analysis Introduction The headline complex (all the elements of the frame text grouped around a work’s title)1 takes on such functions as nominative, evaluative and expressive, infor- mative, and advertising. It is aimed at helping people navigate in a large stream of data in a more flexible manner. The linguistic base in cinematography is a relatively new and regularly expanded section of onomastics. In Western science cinematographic names and other non-textual elements are studied within the terminological framework of the paratext theory formulated in the 1980s by Gerard Genette and several other research- ers (Robert Stam; Nicole Janin-Foucher) and also within the framing theory suggested by Erving Goffman Frame( Analysis, 1974) and Werner Wolf with the contributors to his anthology (2006), who have tried to apply it to media. In Russia the headline complex of cinematic texts have so far received very little consideration. Movie titles (often calledfilmonyms ), excluding other elements 1 According to N.A. Veselova (1998: 203) the headline complex includes all non-textual elements each of which can potentially interact with others and thus serve to create new mea- nings. P. Charaudeau (1997: 223) considers the headline complex (titraille) a genre per se and a subject of textual patterns; this term is also used by E.A. Lazareva, I.S. Guskova, A.V. Fatina, and A.Yu. Tseryulnik in their media text studies and by I.R. Galperina, T. Fedorova, and N.A. Konina in literature studies. Oliviu Felecan (ed.), PROCEEDINGS OF ICONN 4 (2017) • 807 encircling and framing the film, are studied primarily: Yu.N. Podymova (2006) investi- gates the structure and the functions of filmonyms, A.V. Antropova (2008) makes their comparative analysis, and E.V. Skvortsova (2011) employs terms of linguosynergetics in her study of feature film titles2. Because there is no clear terminology with regard to movie titles and other fram- ing elements of cinematic texts, it is necessary to look to areas outside cinematography such as interpretation and translation studies, linguistics, journalism, advertising, lit- erature studies, etc. Headline complex (header complex, headline set, sequence of headings and endings, header and final complex) is a literary term successfully used in Russian media text analysis. It includes a title, a slogan (advertising motto with a briefly formulated idea), a plot summary, the name of an author (director) or iconic actors, a poster, and audio- visual content (trailer). In this work we shall consider the linguistic base (the title and the tagline), while addressing the other elements when required. Sometimes the term slogan or tagline is replaced in the film industry with such words as logline (a brief retelling of the plot in no more than two sentences made to catch the interest of potential viewers) or synopsis (a literary and informative retell- ing of the plot). We are sure that, because of its basic function and structure that can supplement the title, the term slogan expresses its current tasks to the fullest extent possible. The study of headline complexes of cinematic texts is one of the techniques of exposing national conceptual spheres. We want to identify characteristic features in worldviews of different Asian and European countries by distinguishing typical global categories, keywords, metaphors, and images in the headline complex of their cinematography. The concept considered as the basic unit of intercultural communication is an associative notion that replaces a series of images. Concepts can be described in several ways (Pimenova 2005: 15–19; Zhamsaranova 2011: 33–47). In this work we shall treat the concept as a semantic formation that is characterized by specific linguocultural features and expresses the mentality of a linguistic persona from a particular ethnic 2 For deeper insight into different aspects of filmonyms see, e.g., Vorontsova, I.I. and N.L Tkachenko. 2015. Тенденции перевода фильмонимов в контексте современного российского кинематографического рынка [Trends in Translating Movie Titles in the Context of Modern Russian Cinema Market]. Novyi filologichkii vestnik – New Philological Bulletin 3 (34): 139–149; Gorshkova, V.E. 2014. Название фильма как единица перевода и составляющая образа-смысла [Film Title as a Unit of Translation and a Unit of Image- Sense]. Vestnik PNIPU. Problemy âzykoznaniâ i pedagogiki 10: 26–37; Chaykisova, A.V. 2017. Национально-культурная специфика фильмонимов [Culture Specific Aspects of Film Titles]. Uspehi sovremennoj nauki 2 (2): 158–160; Rufova, E.V. 2017. Семантическая интерпретация фильмонимов на материале японского языка [Semantic Interpretation of Filmonyms (Based on Material in Japanese Language)]. Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki 6–1 (72): 127–129. 808 • Elena Gudeleva, Ekaterina Sudarkina community (according to Yu. S. Stepanov 2004: 42–67). The concept is aclump of culture that generates and, at the same time, is generated by it3. Despite the fact that most films are co-produced, there is always one main coun- try of production. The primary role of the author belongs to film script writing and direction. The author’s worldview is formed under the influence of his/her national culture, and the output of his/her effort (film) later becomes part of this culture. The difficulty of perceiving and studying foreign headline complexes is linked with the person of the interpreter who is the mediator between the author and the film’s audience. In the course of decoding we observe the distortion of the producer’s conceptual sphere, which is replaced in the mind of the bearer of another culture with his own worldview anyway. Some titles are interpreted with regard to audience’s tastes and knowledge (experience): for example, the German filmElser (2015) by Oliver Hirschbiegel is known worldwide as 13 Minutes and in Russia as Взорвать Гитлера (‘Blow Up Hitler’); the Icelandic filmFúsi (2015) by Dagur Kári revealing the image of a “little man” was released in Russia and some European countries asVirgin Mountain. Titles of Asian films are decoded in an equally liberal manner. For example, the South Korean filmGukjesijang (literally: ‘The International Market’) by Yoon Je-kyoon was released in some countries as Ode to My Father (2014). It has to be said that an abso- lutely logical characteristic of Russian moviegoers is their expectation of not only ade- quately translated titles of foreign films but also complete dubbing of their soundtracks as opposed to subtitling typical of European countries. In addition, each language has its own figures of speech and idiomatic phrases that make film interpreting more dif- ficult. Here we shall try to use word forms that as close to general ideas of a cinematic text as possible, rely on both generally accepted and independent translations from European and Asian languages. Because of text volume limitations, we shall confine our study to the most vivid examples. It should be noted that in different contexts one seme can be a structural part of several concepts at a time; therefore, the number of films in our sample will not match the number of concept-forming word usages. In order to optimize our estimations, we took account of title complexes of particular films with different concepts according to their number. The relevance of the study consists in an attempt to describe the European and the Asian worldview by linguocultural analysis and highlighting concepts of headline complexes of European and Asian cinematic texts. The subject matter of our research is headline complexes of films from Asian and European countries presented over the past 17 years at such international festivals as the Big Five (Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Sundance, and Toronto) and two other venues 3 The national concept problem is presented in the study “Concepts As a Thin Cover of Civilization” (Stepanov 2007: 63). Stepanov notes that “concepts cannot be associated with any nationality (nationality by passport) in its general sense” and adds that “…a concept has its proper spirit expressed in a familiar and favorite mode of thought, and often by some person in one particular place, where people talk, watch, and listen…” Oliviu Felecan (ed.), PROCEEDINGS OF ICONN 4 (2017) • 809 – Karlovy Vary and Rotterdam. The essential criterion for classifying the films as made either in Europe or in Asia is the director’s origin, followed by the main country of production for co-produced films, the theme and specifics of its presentation. The -phe nomenon of cultural androgyny is beyond the scope of our work and should be con- sidered separately. We shall analyze 1506 titles (1069 titles of European films and 437 titles of Asian films) and 531 slogans for films from different genres. The data are taken from several Internet sources such as the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) and KinoPoisk (kinopoisk.ru), which contain a vast collection of worldwide and national titles and other paratextual elements (taglines, posters, teas- ers, trailers, reviews). We also used official cites of international film festivals and online databases on information related to movies and film posters: CineMaterial (www.cin- ematerial.com), Кино MailRu (afisha.mail.ru), Iranian Movies (www.iranianmovies.